The subject matter disclosed herein relates generally to composite systems, articles incorporating the composite systems, and methods for the in-situ non-destructive testing of the composite systems.
In many, if not all, manufacturing industries, the goods manufactured and the methods of manufacturing them are often impacted by the costs associated with parts and the shipping thereof. For example, in many industries, it may be desirable to produce parts on as large a scale as possible, e.g., pipelines for drilling applications, or blades for wind turbines, but yet doing so would present perhaps insurmountable shipping challenges or costs. On the other hand, manufacturing parts for such applications on a smaller scale then presents the challenge of having to assemble them in the field, with the difficulties attendant therewith, including at least the possibility of failure of any bonds formed in the assembly of the finished product.
Many physical methods of bonding may be preferable for forming such bonds from a strength, integrity and longevity perspective, but can present unwanted cost for the parts themselves as well as their shipping costs. And, physical bonding methods are not infallible.
Chemical bonding methods can prove advantageous in those applications where physical bonding methods prove suboptimal. However, chemical bonds may, in general, be less reliable, and so may require thorough nondestructive evaluations prior to utilization of articles incorporating the bonds. In the applications wherein assembly and chemical bonding occurs in the field, nondestructive assessment of the strength and/or integrity of the bond can be very difficult. Furthermore, conventional methods for doing so are generally time-consuming or otherwise costly, often requiring the utilization of highly-skilled experts in nondestructive testing (NDT). In certain applications, the materials being bonded can interfere with conventional NDT methods. Further, because many conventional NDT methods are not suitable for in-situ testing, real-time correction of any detected anomalies is not a possibility and so the use of NDT is not feasible during process development, manufacturing and joint assembly.
It would therefore be desirable to provide chemical-bonding systems capable of being effectively interrogated by means useful in a field situation, so that their integrity can be evaluated in-situ. The ability to conduct the evaluation in-situ (e.g., during application or curing of the resin) provides the opportunity to implement real-time correction strategies or to assess bond integrity during use. Such systems would provide additional advantages over conventional systems if expert implementation was not required, and/or they were suitable for use with a wide variety of materials typically contraindicated for NDT methods.